Beauty Is The Beast
by samshair
Summary: When Sarah Marsters arrives at SHS, everyone loves her.  Canon occurrences are put in blatant disregard.  Buffy's plots are stolen.  And worst of all -  there's a 2D character!  Sue Bashing.  T for violence.


"Look over there!"

"Over where?"

"THERE! It's a multi-chapter story!"

"No way!"

Uhh, yeah way. And it's taking place in Joss Whedon's 'verse.

That, by the way, was a disclaimer. I don't own.

* * *

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and to the distaste of her company, so was Cordelia Chase. She was bombing down the street in her red convertible, belting out the lyrics to her favourite tune, oblivious

to the extremely annoyed students making their way to Sunnydale high school. Cordelia jerked the wheel, and turned into the parking lot, narrowly missing a group of tenth graders as she screeched the last note in

her song. She pulled into a spot and cut the engine, got out, and grabbed her purse. She stuck out a three-inch pump onto the pavement, and came face-to-face with the epitome of losers, Xander Harris.

"I thought they exterminated the school's _bug_ problem. Get away from me." She snapped at him.

"Someone's sour. If I had my way, I wouldn't be talking to you, but...story of my life." Xander sighed.

"What do you want?" Cordelia replied irritably.

"Buffy needs to see you. And for the record, so does your suitor."

"Wesley?" Cordy asked, interest piqued.

Xander nodded as Cordelia strutted off, doing a last minute hair fluff.

"Buff was right," Xander mused, leaning on the hood of Cordelia's car, "it works like a charm."

Hey, Xander!"

Willow was across the lot, standing up from putting a lock on her bike, and waving at Xander. He waved back, and started making his way over to her.

"Morning. Off to the library?" Xander asked, falling in step with Willow.

"Yup. Giles thinks he has a lead on the Mayor. I also need to see Buffy...about Cordelia."

"What IS it with that girl?" Xander exclaimed.

"Cordy? Now that you two are...NOT two, you're just noticing her presence more. And that demon-y thing scratched her yesterday, while she was playing Vampire bait for us. I just want to make sure she's not mutating or anything..."

"Oh. Is she gonna die?" Xander asked excitedly.

"Ha-ha. No, she will be fine. And do me a favour...don't go pushing all her buttons."

"That'll be no problem. Matter of fact," Xander mimed zipping and locking his mouth, and then swallowing the key. "I won't talk at all."

"You just swallowed a key through locked lips." Willow laughed, wondering if it was on purpose.

Xander shrugged, and held the door to the library open for Willow, who went in, and immediately pulled several old books out of her bag, put them on the table, and turned to Giles, chattering excitedly about a lead on the Ascension.

Buffy was sitting at the table, playing with Mr Pointy distractedly. Xander bee lined for her and sat down.

"What's with the deep thoughts, Buff?" She looked up.

"Hey. Just plotting how best to skip third period."

"Ah." Xander turned to the books Willow had dropped off. He opened one, and started leafing through the super thin pages until he found a picture that caught his interest.

"Naked women?" Buffy leaned over his shoulder, examining the page Xander was skimming.

"Yeah. You caught me." Xander sighed, shoving the open book away from him. "Better get to class. Mr Miller is remorseless on attendance." Xander got up, and walked out of the library.

"Buffy, you should be getting to class too." Giles turned away from Willow, and took off his glasses. "Wesley and I will deal with...things."

"I get it, Giles. We have absolutely nothing. Keep looking." Buffy put Mr Pointy aside, got up, and took her bag, waiting up for Willow at the door.

"Just a sec." She said, rushing to shove various magical ingredients into her backpack. "Oh, darn it. There go the essences." She sighed, picking up a now empty vial, whose contents were now all over the book Xander had been reading.

"I'll take care of it, get to class." Giles took the vial from Willow, and she zipped up her bag. She turned to Buffy and they left for their first period.

Giles watched them leave, taking a sip of his tea, and moving to close the book that had essence of God Knows What spilled in it...and

"OHMYGOD!" A girlish scream made Giles jump and spill tea on the book. He turned to see Cordelia and Wesley, emerging from the stacks, each carrying a pile of books.

"What in God's name was that about?" Giles asked, digging in his pocket for something to wipe the tea off the table with.

"I was just telling Cordelia about the time I used 'solvo anima' to release the spirit of a squirrel by accident. Needless to say, it turned south." Wesley cleared his throat, a bit embarrassed.

Cordelia smiled. "Compelling as that was, I have to get to class." Actually, Cordy had found Wesley's storytelling dry and boring. The only compelling thing about it was listening to Wes' voice. She made her exit, and

the two watchers were left alone. Giles, not eager for conversation, turned to wipe away the spilled tea with a hanky he found, only to see...it was evaporated. _That was fast. _He mused. But nothing to worry about.

He picked up the book, glanced at the cover, and took it into his office, where he stayed.

Now completely alone, Wesley smiled to himself.

"Compelling." He whispered smugly, before turning back into the stacks.

Across the school, Buffy and Willow were spending their first period with Mr Miller, who was drawing something on the chalkboard.

"Miss Summers, since you were late, care to venture the first guess?"

Buffy stared at the board.

"Umm…" she hadn't had any time to think! "Water buffalo?" She blurted out.

They had humps, right?

"No." Mr Miller stuck up a point for himself.

"Mr Weisman, your turn."

A Razorback football player squinted at the chalkboard. "Is it a…-"

But she was cut off by the most beautiful voice to ever ring through the halls of Sunnydale High.

"If I might interrupt, it looks like a camel to me."

The entire class turned to see where the extremely feminine voice was coming from. A teenage girl with long, black hair and surprisingly orange eyes, walked gracefully up to the teacher.

"You are…?" He asked, completely captivated.

"I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself." The girl apologized. "I'm…" she stopped, as if she couldn't remember her own name. Her orange eyes scanned the classroom, and stopped suddenly, locked on Buffy's.

"Sarah. Sarah Marsters." The girl smiled, showing perfect white teeth.

Buffy looked meaningfully at Willow, who looked back at Buffy confusedly.

The period sped away, and outside, Buffy and Willow stopped to talk before heading to separate classes.

"There's something with that Sarah girl." Buffy said.

"What could be wrong with her? She seems perfectly fine to me." Willow shrugged.

"And that's just it, Will. She's too perfect."

Willow sighed. "Buffy, you're seeing demons every way you turn. Sarah's a normal student. She was just unlucky enough to land up in Sunnydale."

"Well, okay. But if we're all dead because of her next week, I'm blaming you." Buffy caved, smiling.

"Right." Willow agreed. The two girls then spotted Sarah, walking from Mr Miller's class, and they watched her leave.

"But I have some weird feeling she's going to save us, not kill us." Willow said, looking after the girl.

There was a pause as they turned their separate ways, and as Buffy headed toward her next class, her smile disappeared. She sighed to herself.

"But _I'M _the saving-people person."


End file.
